Sketch of a Provisional Revolutionary Government

Written:Written in June-July 1905Published:First published in 1926 inLenin Miscellany V.

      Published according to the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Foreign Languages Publishing House,1962,

      Moscow,Volume 8,

      pages534-536.Translated:Bernard Isaacs and The Late Isidor LaskerTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2003).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Setting:Tsarism in St. Petersburg struck down, the autocratic government
overthrown—struck down but not utterly destroyed, not killed,not
annihilated, not extirpated.

Theprovisional revolutionary government appeals to the people. Workers and
peasantst a k e   t h e   i n i t i a t i v e.Complete freedom. The people organise
their own lives. Thegovernment programme=fullrepublican liberties,
peasant committees for thecompletereform of agrarian relations. The
Programme of the Social-Democratic Partyi s   a   t h i n g   s t a n d i n g   b y
  i t s e l f.Social-Democrats in the provisional government =people delegated,c o m m i s s i o n e dby the Social-DemocraticP a r t y.

Next—the Constituent Assembly.Ifthe people have risen, they

				 ...[1]may(even though not immediately) find themselves in the
majority (peasants and workers).Ergo, the revolutionaryd i c t a t o r s h i pof the proletariat and the peasantry.

Franticresistance of evil forces. Civil wari n   f u l l   s w e e p—annihilationof tsarism.

Organisationof the proletariat grows, propaganda and agitation of the
Social-Democrats increases ten thousandfold—all the government
printing-presses, etc., etc.“Mit der Gründlichkeit der
geschichtlichen Aktion wird auch der Umfang der Masse zunehmen, deren Aktion sie

			     ist.”[2]

Thepeasantry takesallagrarian relations,allthe land, into
its own hands.T h e n   n a t i o n a l i s a t i o nbecomes a fact.

Tremendousgrowth of productive forces—the entire rural intelligentsia,
all technical knowledge, is brought into action to increase agricultural
production, to get rid of fettering influences (uplifters, Narodniks, etc.,
etc.).... Gigantic development ofcapitalistprogress....

War:thefortkeeps changing hands. Either the bourgeoisie overthrows
the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, or this
dictatorship sets Europe aflame, and then...?

Ifwe are to consider the question of revolutionary dictatorship from the
standpoint of Marxism, we shall have to reduce it to an analysis of thestruggle of the

  c l a s s e s.

Ergo,what major social forces should be taken into account?Ordre de
bataille?

(α)The bureaucratic, military, and Court elements standforabsolutismp l u sthe unenlightened elements among the people (a
rapidly disintegrating conglomerate, yesterday all-powerful, tomorrow
powerless). (Dynastic and other conflicts within inevitable.)

Degreeof organisation very high—maximum

(β)The more or less big, moderately-liberal bourgeoisie.

((Here I include the liberal landlords, the top financiers, the merchants,
manufacturers, etc., etc. This=σ lords
and masters of a bourgeois country. “Can do anything”. ))

Degreeof organisation very slight

Conflictsbetween the groupings inevitable; but all
stand for a Constitution even now, and still more so tomorrow.

Ideologicalleaders—in abundance, from among the officials, landlords, and
journalists.

(γ)The petty-bourgeois and peasant section. Tens of
millions.

The“people”par excellence.

Degreeof organisation —minimum

Greateststate of benightedness and
      disorganisation.

Theirplight most desperate, they have most to gaindirectlyfrom the revolution. The greatest instability (to day—for the
 revolution, tomorrow—for “law and order” after
 slight improvements).

De m o c r a c y.Ideological leaders—a great
   number of democratic intellectuals. The Socialist-Revolutionary
 “type”.

(δ)The proletariat.

Veryhigh level of organisation, and discipline

Revolutionary-minded.Critical attitude towards the petty bourgeoisie. Hasfewerideological leaders than all the others—only the
Social-Democratic intelligentsia and the educated Social-Democratic
workers. Compared with the preceding groups numerically very much weaker, butKampffähigkeit[3]very much stronger.

Objectof the struggle =Republic(includingalldemocratic liberties, them i n i m u m   p r o g r a m m eand far-reaching social reforms).

α—absolutelyagainst.

β—fora Constitution,againstthe
Republic (½ and ½).  ((Bargaining.))

γ—ina revolutionary moment (not firmly) for the Republic
((the unstable
elements of the struggle)).

δ—whollyand entirelyforthe Republic.

[1]One word illegible.—Ed.

[2]“As the thoroughness of the historic action increases, the magnitude
of the mass whose cause it represents will also
increase.”[4]—Ed.

[3]Fighting capacity.—Ed.

[4]See Marx and Engels,The Holy Family, or Critique of Critical
Critique, Moscow, 1956, p. 410.